Tag Archives: Harry Potter

The more time Harry spends at The Burrow, the more it seems like this world’s Rivendell – the last stop for warmth and healing before diving into the full adventure. Rivendell was also known as The Last Homely House, a name which feels very “Burrow” to me. I don’t really understand how Tonks is ableContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapters 5-8”

Dumbledore at the Dursleys feels like really clumsy exposition – and out of character. It seems both contrived that he would work through the entire Kreacher issue in the presence of the Dursleys – there is no reason to do so – and inconsistent with his character that he would be so overtly condescending toContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapters 3&4”

I was struck in the Spinner’s End chapter by the parallels between the “good” and “bad” sides of the wizarding world. Our titular protagonist was saved by a mother risking everything to save him. Now the mother of one of his principal adversaries is . . . risking everything to try to save her son.Continue reading “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapters 1/2”

We finally finished reading Harry Potter 5 with our toddler so here are some thoughts about the film adaptation before we move on to Half Blood Prince. Below I’m going to post my thoughts chronologically, but let me start with a few high level points to add some context for the specifics to follow: ThisContinue reading “Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix Movie”

Quick side note: does anyone else feel like our relationship with Moody in books 5, 6, and 7 is sort of fake? He’s this member of the Order and he’s looking out for Harry so we’re supposed to feel something for him – but the “Moody” we actually got to know in book 4 wasn’tContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix Chapter 38”

WARNING: THERE BE SPOILERS BELOW: These chapters further my beef with Dumbledore’s occlumency plan. By the end of the 7th book, we really come to view Dumbledore as a true chess master. He’s thinking years ahead and anticipating what many pieces on the board will do in response to the moves of others. Indeed, heContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapters 32/33”

The Occlumency subplot of this book seems a little wonky to me. Was Snape really the ONLY person who could teach it to Harry? Especially considering how bad of a teacher he seems to be! Considering that the main thread of the book involves a group of students learning magic beyond their years and teachingContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapters 30/31”

Can I just say that I love Fred and George here? Their uprising against evil, authoritative rule is inspiring – vive la resistance! It’s sort of neat too how we get multiple examples all at once of kids out-magic’ing grownups: Fred and George’s uprising, Hermione’s sneak pimples. (Is this the first time we’ve seen evidenceContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapters 28/29”

I think Harry is so much better at resisting the Imperius Curse than he is at Occlumency because . . . he had a better teacher for resisting the Imperius Curse. That’s right, a Death Eater pretending to be a mad ex-auror is better at teaching than career educator Severus Snape. Fake Moody prepared theContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapters 24/25”

Chapter 18: The leader of my Harry Potter book club pointed out that Hermione sounds a lot like Mrs. Weasley in this chapter, chastising Sirius for taking unnecessary risks. Oedipus much, Ron?? Chapter 19: It’s interesting that teaching is the first thing that Harry has been really good at since flying. Now that I thinkContinue reading “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Chapters 18/19”